Stake That (8 page)

I shake my head.
Earth to Rayne. Come in, Rayne.
We don’t even like this dude—er, guy. So there is absolutely no reason to be upset. Just get the job done. Impress the council and you’ll be assigned a real blood mate. Someone compatible to you DNA-wise. And then you can bite each other ‘til the bats come home.

“Okay, fine. Let’s go to the lounge.”

I follow him out the door and down the corridor until we get to a room labeled lounge. I’ve got to admit, I’m looking forward to the cookies and orange juice snack at this point. The bite, with all its euphoria, definitely left me feeling weak in the knees. I wonder how much blood he took from me. I won-der if he thought I tasted good. If they even care about that.

I wonder if he wishes he could bite me again.

Not that I care. Really.

The lounge is decked out like the rest of the Blood Bar, in red and black, but it’s more relaxing looking than the formal sitting room lobby. There’s a lot of smooshy velvet couches and little end tables with tea candles are scattered around the room. The candlelight is all the illumination the place has got and so all the inhabitants look a bit haunted and hollow-eyed. Or maybe that’s just due to the fact they’ve been half drained dry a few minutes earlier.

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I make a beeline for an empty couch across the room. I plop down, pulling my feet up and under me. Jareth heads to the bar on the far side of the room and returns a moment later with some juice and Ritz crackers.

“No Oreos, huh?” I ask as I take the plate from him and start chowing on the crackers. I slurp down some juice.

“Could you at least try to chew with your mouth closed?” Jareth hisses, taking a seat beside me. I roll my eyes. God, how can someone so sexy be so uptight and annoying? I , mean, it’s not like we’re on a date, right? My actions should not have any reflection on him. And even if they do, who cares? We’re at a freaking bite bar in the worst section of town. I say, in this sitch, it’s safe to leave Miss Manners at the door.

Choosing to ignore him, I instead glance around the room, hoping to pick up some revealing scraps of conversation that might clue us into Maverick’s evil plan. But it seems luck is not being a lady tonight. No one’s saying a word.

“Wait a second,” Jareth says, his eyes falling on two girls across the room. They’re both gothed out and channeling Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan in their scrawniness, but they’re definitely human.

“What?”

“I recognize those two. They’re donors for my friend Kristoff.”

“Yeah?” I ask, peering at the girls. “But that doesn’t make sense.” FYI: A donor is a human who voluntarily signs up to be a regular blood source for a vampire. Each vamp has his own stable of donors. This way they don’t bite unwilling people, like you see in the movies. It’s all very civilized and there are blood tests and contracts and the donors make pretty good dough for their services.

But why would two donors be at the Blood Bar? They al-ready get sucked by their vamp on a regular basis. There’s no way they have that much blood to spare.

“That’s a huge contract violation,” Jareth says, peering at the girls. “What if they came down with some disease? They could infect Kristoff.”

“Do you want to say anything to them?”

“No. It’s not my place. And it would blow our cover. But I will certainly be reporting the incident tomorrow to Kristoff. He will have to let them go.”

I stare at the two girls. They don’t look all that well—even for Donor Chicks, who always look slightly anemic. Even un-der the dim lighting I can see the dark rings around their eyes and a slightly green tone to their skin.

Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice in Wonderland would say… .

***

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Anyway, that’s all to report for now. More tomorrow, I’m sure. At least Jareth and I seem to have reached some kind of truce. We’re never going to be BFFs, but at least we’re not at each other’s throats. Well, maybe that’s a bad analogy … I mean, let’s be honest here. Annoying or not, I’d let him be at my throat any day of the week. ;-)

POSTED BY RAYNE MCDONALD @ 1 A.M.

ONE COMMENT:

AstrydGrrl777 says …

You got bit by a vampire! How cool is that? I’m sooooo jeal-ous! What did it feel like? I mean, I know you kinda de-scribed it, but we want details! Lots of intimate, personal, embarrassing details! Come on, girl! Spill!!

TUESDAY,JUNE5, 1:33 A.M.

I Can’t Breathe!

OMG! So I’m like almost asleep and I hear a car pull up. Mom! I jump out of bed and run to my window, hoping to get a good look at the date.

The front spotlight flickers on, illuminating two figures on the front porch. Two figures kissing, to be precise.

At first I’m overjoyed that my mom has found a boyfriend and is at last getting her groove on. But then I look closer. As the boyfriend in question pulls away, I get a good glimpse of his face for the first time. A face I’d recognize anywhere.

And suddenly I can’t breathe.

I’ve got to IM Sunny. Now!

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POSTED BY RAYNE MCDONALD @ 1:33 P.M.

TWO COMMENTS:

ButterfliQT says…

ARGH! What is it? You can’t leave us hanging like that! Who is it? It’s not your Trig teacher, is it? The one you and Spider were talking about sleeping with? That’d be sooo nasty! Please post more and tell us it’s not your Trig teacher!

Rayne says…

Don’t worry—it’s not my Trig teacher. And just FYI, I don’t know about Spider, but I’d rather take an F than come within ten feet of Mr. McFee. I don’t do balding mullets.

TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 2 p.m.

Do Boyfriends Bite?

No time to explain. Pasting in chat transcript with Sunny to fill you in. This is huge. HUGE! And really, really, re-ally bad!

RAYNIEDAY:Sunny, are you awake?

RAYNIEDAY: Sunny, if you’re not awake, wake up now! It’s important. RAYNIEDAY: SUNNY!!!!

SUNSHINEBABY: What the heck are you IM’ing me for at 2am?

RAYNIEDAY: I need to talk to you. It’s an emergency.

SUNSHINEBABY:Uh, okay. But why not just walk across the hall and knock on my door? It’s not like
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I’m in Topeka.

RAYNIEDAY: Cause Mom’s home. She might hear me.

SUNSHINEBABY: She’ll hear tiptoed steps, but not the loud, obnoxious IM beeps coming from our computers?

RAYNIEDAY: So turn your sound down. Jeesh. You and tech-nology. And hurry up. This can’t wait. SUNSHINEBABY: Okay, okay. Hangon.

RAYNIEDAY: . ..

SUNSHINEBABY: Okay, done. Now what’s so important?

RAYNIEDAY: I don’t know how to tell you this, but…

SUNSHINEBABY: Oh, god, Rayne, just spit it out. It’s 2am and I’ve got a field hockey game tomorrow.

RAYNIEDAY: Hmph. This is so much more important than a field hockey game. Mom’s dating a vampire.

SUNSHINEBABY: Field hockey is too import-WHAT?!??!

RAYNIEDAY: I told you it was important. But no. You never believe me…. SUNSHINEBABY: Wait. Focus. I don’t understand? How can she be dating a vampire?

RAYNIEDAY: She just got home. I spied out my window at them kissing. SUNSHINEBABY: You know, that’s pretty rude, Rayne. Whether we like Mom dating or not, she deserves our re-spect and privacy.

RAYNIEDAY: Are you going to listen to me about our mom dating the undead or just lecture on parental etiquette all night?

SUNSHINEBABY: Fine. Go on.

RAYNIEDAY: So the guy pulls away and I get a good glimpse of his face. And I recognize him immediately. I saw him my first night at the Blood Bar. He was sort of standing in a corner, surveying the place. I’m thinking he works there as, like, a manager or something. SUNSHINEBABY: OMG! So he’s not only a vampire, he’s a bad vampire. One of Maverick’s men. RAYNIEDAY: Yeah. That’s what I was thinking. He probably thinks by getting close to Mom he can get close to you and then get close to Magnus.

SUNSHINEBABY: Wow. What are we going to do? We can’t just tell Mom she’s dating Dracula. RAYNIEDAY: No. But we have to do something.

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SUNSHINEBABY: Maybe he’s not a vampire. Maybe he’s a human who likes to be bit by them. You know, a customer.

RAYNIEDAY: It’s possible. But I don’t know. And really, it doesn’t seem that good either way, now does it?

SUNSHINEBABY: Wow. This is just like what happened on
The Lost Boys.
RAYNIEDAY:
The Lost Boys?

SUNSHINEBABY: Vampire movie from the eighties? With Kiefer Sutherland? Jeesh, Rayne, I thought you watched all those movies.

RAIYNIEDAY: I try to stick to vampire classics. Bela Lugosi. Maybe some Christopher Lee. Jack Bauer from
24
just doesn’t scream VAMP to me.

SUNSHINEBABY: Fine. But you should watch it. Like, tomor-row. It’s totally the same thing. The kids’ mom starts dat-ing this guy and they think he’s a vampire so they try to prove it. RAYNIEDAY: How do they do that?

SUNSHINEBABY: Urn, I can’t remember exactly. Garlic. Holy water. Stuff like that, I think. Really good movie, even if they do all have big hair and bad clothes.

RAYNIEDAY: So you’re suggesting we try that stuff on the date? Hm. Not a bad idea. Then we’d have proof. I mean, I’d like to have proof before I go and stake Mom’s BF. SUNSHINEBABY: Yes. Seems wise.

RAYNIEDAY: Sigh. Poor Mom. She was so excited about the guy. It’s going to suck to have to slay him.

SUNSHINEBABY: But it’s in her best interest. After all, he doesn’t really like her. He’s just using her to get to me.

RAYNIEDAY: Right. True. We have the best intentions.

SUNSHINEBABY: Anyway—I’ve got to get some sleep. School tomorrow. Goodnight, Rayne. RAYNIEDAY: You’re such a nerd. I can’t believe you can think of school at a time like this. SUNSHINEBABY: GOOD NIGHT, RAYNE.

RAYNIEDAY: Sigh. Night, Sun.

SUNSHINEBABY HAS LEFT THE CHAT.

POSTEDBY
RAYNE MCDONALD
@ 2 A.M.

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TWO COMMENTS:

Just Curious says…

Wow, what’s with you chicks? You’re all hooking up with vamps? Is there something in the McDonald family water supply? Is your blood supersweet?

Rayne says… First of all, we are NOT all hooking up with vampires. Me, for example, the one person in the family who WANTS to hook up with a vampire, has had absolutely no luck in get-ting one near me. All I get are idiots like Magnus, who go off and bite the wrong girl, or losers like Jareth, who have so many issues they can’t see the delectable treat right in front of them. No, it appears it’s only McDonald women who aren’t interested in being with vamps that have any luck in hooking them. So very sad.

TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 12p.m.

Breakfast Bites

SoIwake up this morning bright and early, throw on a black crocheted sweater and a short black skirt. I roll on my fishnet tights and lace up my combat boots. Then I head to my bathroom for my morning makeup routine. It takes a lot of time to become “me” in the a.m. But it’s worth it. Sunny, whose idea of morning preparation involves slip-ping on a T-shirt and jeans and running a comb through her hair, is already downstairs, dressed and picking at some god-awful concoction my mom whipped up. Mom makes very in-teresting breakfasts with the food she buys at the co-op and we’re her guinea pigs. When Sunny had been turning vam-pire, Mom experimented with this garlic breakfast scramble. The smell alone sent Sunny scrambling to the bathroom to retch her guts out. She claims that was just because of her burgeoning aversion to garlic, but honestly it could have just been the recipe and Mom’s attempt to cook.

“So what’s the special of the morning?” I ask, sliding into my chair. I’m famished. Nothing she can possibly come up with will make me lose my appetite today.

“Well, it doesn’t really have an official name,” Mom says, dishing some of the unidentified mush from the frying pan onto a plate. “But the cook at the commune used to refer to it as hippie hash.”
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Then again, maybe I’ll skip first period and hit Dunkin’ Donuts on the way to school.

“So how’d your date go?” I ask, trying not to wrinkle my nose as she puts the foul smelling scramble in front of me.

She sets another plate in front of her own spot and sits down between Sunny and me. I glance over at my sister and notice that while the food is being moved around her plate, it’s not going into her mouth.

“Great,” Mom says, her eyes shining. “We went out to the nicest restaurant. Of course, it was a steak house. He’s evi-dently a big steak eater. Says he loves them really rare.” I try to catch Sunny’s eyes. See? Rare steak. The only thing vampires enjoy eating, as it’s so bloody.

“He took you to a steak house?” I ask. Mom’s a strict vegetarian, of course. Poor woman. “Didn’t you tell him you don’t eat meat? That you belong to PETA? That you think the chemicals found in cattle are mind-controlling hormones injected by the government to sedate the hu-man race while big business goes around and trashes our world?”

“It’s okay,” Mom says, of course completely excusing her date’s major faux pas. “I just had a potato and vegetables. It was very good.”